Course for international guest/part time students
- Faculty
- Faculty of Humanities
- Organization
- BTK Institute of Philosophy
- Code
- BMI-LOTD17-206E.01
- Title
- Philosophy of Science 2.: Causality
- Usual semester
- Spring
- ECTS
- 3
- Language
- Learning outcomes
- General aim of the course: What does causation consist in, and, depending on the possible answers, what are the basic characteristics of a causal relationship? -- this is the main topic of the lecture course. We shall also discuss the most important contexts of causality: the relationship of causality to concepts of explanation, law-like regularity, statistical correlation, time, modality, and logical inference. Our considerations will be based on the analysis of the causal narratives in our scientific, first of all, physical theories; rather than our every day experiences or common sense intuition. Grading criteria, specific requirements: Oral exam from the material of the lectures. Video records and the slides of the lectures will be available. Required reading: Causation, Oxford Readings in Philosophy, E. Sosa and M. Tooley, eds., Oxford University Press (1997) L.E. Szabó: A nyitott jövő problémája - véletlen, kauzalitás és determinizmus a fizikában (The Problem of Open Future - chance, causality, and determinism in physics), Typotex Kiadó, Budapest 2002 (The manuscript of the English edition will be available for the students in PDF form.) Chap. 4-6, 9.4-9.6 Suggested further reading: G. Hofer-Szabó, M. Rédei, L. E. Szabó: The Principle of the Common Cause, Cambridge University Press, 2013. L. E. Szabó: The Einstein--Podolsky--Rosen Argument and the Bell Inequalities, Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy (2008) L. E. Szabó: Objective probability-like things with and without objective indeterminism, Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 38 (2007) 626–634.